Savannah Arts Academy


Savannah Arts Academy is the first dedicated performing and visual arts school in Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is part of the Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools. Savannah Arts Academy was granted charter school status and the former Savannah High School building in July 1998, and opened in August of the same year with 397 students enrolled.
In 2012, the school was ranked the #1 high school in Georgia, and #87 among more than five thousand high schools nationally, by US News and World Report.

Academics

The school offers classes up to the AP or college level.
AP Courses
The Communication Arts Department offers intensive courses related to information technology and broadcast/video production. As freshmen, students study basic computer applications and gain knowledge of the communication system by participating in a variety of activities, problems, and settings. Students work in information technology, software systems management, operating systems, data communications, the Internet, digital media production, and web design. Broadcast and video production courses provide advanced training in video production techniques, including program production, editing, lighting, and graphics. Students in Communication Arts also have the opportunity to take Journalism I and II, and Journalism III and IV.

Dance

The Dance Department students take technical training in ballet and modern, plus additional training in jazz, if interested. Students engage in two academic dance courses - one year of dance history and one year of dance composition. The department traditionally performs in two large annual productions with dance works created by faculty, students, and guest artists. Choreography is produced both in class and in afternoon rehearsals. There are also multiple opportunities for performing in venues from the fall Student Choreography Concerts to the large spring musical production, as well as touring local area schools and events. Each year interested dance students may attend the National High School Dance Festival and have the opportunity to work with local and national guest artists throughout the school year.

Music

The faculty includes professional musicians, active performers, clinicians, and adjudicators.
The chorus has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. They were also invited to perform in Australia and England. They have released several CDs.
The music department provides instruction in winds, strings, percussion, piano and vocal music. Ensembles include String Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra, Concert Band, Jazz Band, Mixed Choruses, Men's Choir, and Women's Choir. SAA has five choruses: the SAA Chorale, Men's Choir, Skylarks, Women's Cantabile, and Nova Singers. The program through the years has garnered every award available to it through the Georgia Music Educators Association.
Students who graduate from the program and elect to pursue music in higher education have been awarded scholarships to the leading institutions in the country, including Indiana University and Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
The orchestral program is one of the few left in the city's public school system.

Theatre Arts

The Theatre Arts Department's mission is to foster talent and develop creativity through professional training and a wide variety of courses including Drama Fundamentals, Acting I & II, Technical Theatre I & II, Acting III, Theater History, Musical Theater I & II, Technical Theatre III, a design course, and Advanced Drama. Students have the opportunity to practice the skills learned in the classroom through after-school productions, competitions and festivals. It holds several performances each year. The theater heads are Richard Lundin, who teaches theater tech, Clinton Tucker, who teaches acting, and Richie Cook, who teaches theater literature and repertory theater. They alternate which shows they get to direct each year.

Visual Arts

The Visual Arts Department offers Art History and Criticism, Drawing, Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Fibers, Fashion, Ceramics, Pottery, and AP Studio Art.

History

The Savannah Arts Academy building is located on a site that was originally planned as a luxury tourist hotel called the Hotel Georgia. The Works Progress Administration, in the midst of the Great Depression, expressed interest in the site for use as the new Savannah High School, which was dedicated on June 15, 1937. After 61 years on Washington Avenue, Savannah High School classes were moved to a new building on Pennsylvania Avenue, leaving the structure available for the newly formed Savannah Arts Academy for the school year beginning August 1998.

Awards and recognition

During the 2006-07 school year, Savannah Arts Academy was recognized with the Blue Ribbon School Award of Excellence by the United States Department of Education. This is considered the highest award an American school can receive. "The Blue Ribbon award is given only to schools that reach the top 10 percent of their state's testing scores over several years or show significant gains in student achievement."
Other recognitions include:
Students must perform ten hours of community service each year, maintain an 80% average, and have very good discipline. Each child's parents must also do a total of ten hours of service annually, but parent service can include volunteering at performances or attending parent meetings.
Admission to Savannah Arts Academy requires an 80% or greater overall academic average in the previous year of schooling, as well as satisfactory marks in conduct.
The audition requirement for Savannah Arts is waived for students enrolled in the Armstrong Atlantic Youth Orchestra or the Atlantic Chamber Orchestra who meet the academic requirements. AAYO and ACO are member orchestras which are filled by recommendation, including an intensive audition process, and are sponsored by the music department at Armstrong Atlantic State University.
Incoming students are also required to audition for their chosen arts major, which can range from an on-the-spot demonstration to creation of a portfolio.

Administration

Hired in August 1998, Mary P. Arbee co-wrote the charter of the school, organized the first school council, and assisted in hiring the first faculty and staff who auditioned the first students. Arbee became the first principal. The following year, Arbee resigned and relocated.
Beverly Oliver came to SAA to serve as interim principal until the arrival of Marcia Clanton from Hubert Middle School in February 2000. In March 2006, Clanton was promoted to executive director of all high schools in Savannah and was replaced by SAA administrator Odessa Richards.
SAA has had several other assistant principals: Dr. Benny Ferguson, Lynette Angeloni, Dr. Angie Lewis, David Marshall, Travis Cowart, Ken Traylor, and Odessa Richards. For most of the school year of 2010-2011, Heather Handy was the interim principal. Gif Lockley replaced Handy as the new permanent principal in 2011.

Performance facilities

;John Varnedoe Theatre
The main theatre located at the front of the building was redone with the school-wide renovation, supplying a large stage, cloth theatre chairs, new carpeting, and wing space.
;Black Box Theatre
This is a theatre and communications classroom.
;Performance hall
The hall is used for events such as Beta Induction and lectures.

Student activities

Savannah Arts' school-related events, performances, student clubs, and sports teams include:

Clubs

The theatre shows that occur each year stick mainly to this schedule: